America: Loss of more than billions of dollars because of online love fraud

Tram Ho

In “Tinder Scammers”, the main character pretends to be a rich and luxurious diamond tycoon, he seduces women online and then defrauds them of millions of dollars. Based on a true story, the details in the film partly reflect today’s social reality. Love scams and money scams are happening regularly, breaking the hearts of many victims and their bank accounts as well.

Mỹ: Thiệt hại hơn tỷ USD vì lừa tình qua mạng - Ảnh 1.

We’ve “evolved” from long distance friends in the press to dating apps like Tinder. These are also popular scam channels.

Fake accounts, fake photos and videos, tearful stories from scammers… all aim to create sympathy from the “prey”. The scenarios of cheating love and money fraud are also much more sophisticated. In the past, users were often tricked into joining chat sessions, showing off their bodies via webcam and then blackmailed. Now, social networks and dating apps have become tools for criminals.

According to the US Federal Communications Commission (FTC), sex-related scams hit a record high in 2021, causing $547 million in losses in the US alone. Data from US authorities for the past 5 years shows that this number is nearly 80% higher than in 2020, and the trend continues to increase. In total, users lost at least $1.3 billion. On average, each victim lost $2,400.

One notable trend is that scammers are targeting cryptocurrencies. For example, they will chat with victims long enough to gain trust, then offer lucrative but urgent business opportunities. They invite victims to invest in a financial product or virtual currency exchange to get “x2, x3” accounts.

The problem is that the money deposited into the scammer’s wallet is never invested or profitable, or the victim is tricked into downloading a fake cryptocurrency trading app, resulting in stolen account funds or sensitive data. . The FTC says the average user loss in cryptocurrency scams is close to $10,000. In 2021, virtual currency-related scams caused a loss of 139 million USD, an increase of 5 times in 2020 and more than 25 times in 2019.

According to ZDN

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Source : Genk